The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ruled that unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) (also referred to herein as remotely operated aircraft (ROA)) operating in the National Air Space (NAS) of the United States “must provide an equivalent level of safety, comparable to see-and-avoid (SAA) requirements for manned aircraft. The term see-and-avoid is used interchangeably with the term “sense-and-avoid (SAA)”. The objective of SAA is to provide the UAS with the capability to perform self separation and collision avoidance maneuvers against all air traffic, with or without active, transponder based collision avoidance systems. Currently, no certified ROA SAA capability exists anywhere in the world. Remotely operated aircraft in operation in the NAS without SAA require Certificates of Authorization from the FAA and require chase planes (planes chasing the ROA), or ground based observers of the ROA.
The development of SAA capability for UAS has been identified by the FAA as one of the keys required to enable UAS to operate in the NAS. Non-military applications for these UAS include monitoring borders to locate illegal border activity, monitoring hazardous and potential fatal weather events, or monitoring traffic conditions.
Any use of UAS, regardless of manufacturer, in the NAS must follow rules and requirements established by the FAA. SAA requires the UAS to detect and track intruder aircraft in the operating vicinity of the ownship UAS to identify guidance maneuvers required to perform self separation and collision avoidance. The detect and track functions are key enablers for UAS SAA capability because the UAS cannot perform self separation or collision avoidance maneuvers for undetected, untracked intruder aircraft.